An ICE operation is underway in New York City, with federal immigration officers launching enforcement actions in Queens on Monday before expanding into other parts of the metropolitan area beginning Tuesday, according to sources who spoke with NewsNation.
The operation comes more than a month after White House border czar Tom Homan warned that additional immigration enforcement resources were headed to the city. Last week, Homan said ICE would increase its presence in New York following the alleged attack on a federal building.
Homan said the operation had already been planned before the incident but argued the attack highlighted what he described as growing hostility toward federal immigration officers.
“There’s just another example of someone attacking ICE because of the constant mis-messaging and vilification of the men and women of ICE,” Homan told reporters last week.
According to NewsNation, the operation is being carried out by federal officers already assigned to the New York field office. Sources said ICE has not yet brought in agents from other locations.
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The enforcement effort is focused on illegal aliens and other noncitizens who were released after local jails and prisons failed to honor ICE detainers, allowing them to return to their communities instead of being transferred into federal custody, according to the report.
New York’s Protect Our Courts Act generally bars ICE from making civil immigration arrests while people are traveling to, attending or leaving state courthouses. Even so, sources told NewsNation the operation is expected to result in collateral arrests, meaning officers could detain individuals who were not the original targets of the enforcement effort.
Homan has repeatedly said anyone in the country illegally remains subject to immigration enforcement, even if they are not initially identified as a target by the Department of Homeland Security.
For weeks, Homan has signaled that ICE would expand operations in New York City, though he declined to offer a specific timeline. He also criticized New York leaders after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation restricting cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities in local jails.
Hochul signed the legislation into law at the end of May. A spokesperson for the governor’s office did not immediately respond to NewsNation’s request for comment. A spokesperson for New York City Hall also did not immediately respond.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined to confirm whether Monday’s ICE operation had begun, citing operational security.
“ICE agents uphold our nation’s immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” the spokesperson said.
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